Web site Comics Alliance, a three-time winner of the Eisner award -- went mysteriously silent toward the end of April, to the distress and consternation of comics fans.

No word -- official or otherwise -- was heard from either parent company AOL or any of the Comics Alliance staff members. However, the lack of updates on the site since April 29, where it usually updated several times a day, seemed to confirm that Comics Alliance was being shelved and archived. This apparent move was puzzling, as the site was not losing money; quite the contrary, in fact.

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A new post on the Web site, however, seems to indicate that perhaps the whole thing was merely a hiatus. Titled ";)" (the wink emoticon), the post is a series of panels from Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" showing Superman hearing Batman's heartbeat after the latter has faked his own death.

Although we don't know why the Web site would fake us out, we bet its return is going to be something great -- even if it's just Comics Alliance back on our daily RSS feeds. Stay tuned.